MADE MEET

“Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light”            Colossians 1:12

hat is it that makes a sinner meet [able or fit] to be a partaker [have a share in] the inheritance of the saints?  In other words, on what ground can any of us hope to enjoy the privilege of eternal life with God?  The verse very clearly says that it is the inheritance of THE SAINTS, therefore to be made meet, must of necessity include being made as holy as God Himself.  How can this be?

                As in any inheritance, the beneficiaries are named by the Father, who purposes to bequest what He has to His children.  Ephesians 1:4 says, ‘according as HE hath chosen us in him (Christ) before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him.’  And yet, it does not say that our election is what has made us meet.  “That we should be holy,” signifies God’s purpose to make holy those He eternally chose, but this had yet to be accomplished by the shedding of the blood of His Son, the ONLY ground of forgiveness of sins as stated in the following verse (Ephesians 1:7).  Hebrews 9:15 reveals that it was by means of the death of Christ that those under the first testament received the promise of eternal inheritance.  God was not favorable to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, or any of His elect in the Old Testament period because He had merely decreed them justified. No, the Scriptures say that He was forbearing with their sin (Romans 3:25), and did not impute their sin to them (Ps. 32:2), having purposed to justify them and give them eternal life and glory based on the death that the Lord Jesus would accomplish for them.  It is ONLY the death of the testator that has made any of us meet!

                Just as importantly, it must be stated that it is not by any inherent righteousness in us that we are made meet. Ecclesiastes 7:20 says “there is not even a just [justified] man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.” The Spirit of God is not given to us in order to make us meet, but rather because we have been made meet (once for all) by REDEMPTION through Christ’s blood, EVEN the forgiveness of sins (Colossians 1:14).  As important as regeneration is to bring the heirs to repentance and to rest in Christ alone, yet, it is not the work of the Spirit that makes us fit for heaven.  The Spirit is the Advocate sent by THE ADVOCATE (John 14:26) to reveal that because Christ died we have in HIM already, all the righteousness and holiness necessary to give us PERFECT standing before HIM, Hebrews 10:10-14)!  Thank God for Christ’s death whereby as heirs of God, we are made MEET!

KEN WIMER

A SINLESS NATURE OR RIGHTEOUSNESS IMPUTED?

“Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God”. I John 3:9

How I long to be free from sin in my experience!  There was a day when it was not so, being yet dead in sin, without the life of God in me, by His Spirit.  However, since God graciously crossed my path with the Good News of Christ’s death and satisfaction for sin, and the Spirit of God brought me from darkness to light, I am more aware of sin in me now than ever before.  On the one hand, I can understand, because now with the Spirit of God in me, as the light, it exposes what I truly am by nature- a sinful, wicked, wretch.  Like a cancer, I long to be rid of it, and be free forever from its deadly effects.

                Therefore, when I read that “whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin,” I wonder how this can be.  I hear different ones explaining their theories that if born again, there is a ‘sinless righteousness’ that we have that is created in us, that does not sin.  However, as I have questioned these about this, I can never get a straight answer as to exactly how this keeps me from sinning.  Some say that it is by this ‘imparted righteousness’ that we can actually love God as we ought, and to pray, witness, believe, etc.  And yet, when I ask those who claim to have such a nature to tell me one instance where they have prayed a sinless prayer, or done a perfect work, or believed as they ought, they “hem and haw.”  For any who are honest and indeed troubled by their sin, I believe there is a clearer explanation that John is writing of, under the inspiration of the Spirit.   He wrote earlier in I John 1:9 that if we say that we have not sinned [having sinned in Adam with continuing ongoing effects], we make God a liar.  Then again in 2:1, John affirms the necessity of Christ’s ongoing role as Advocate because of our bent to sin. If there were a sinless nature imparted to us at regeneration, what then would be the need for Christ’s ongoing advocacy?  Why the call of scripture to be transformed by the RENEWING OF OUR MIND, Romans 12:2?   

                The only answer I can find is that it refers to our standing in Christ and His IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS through His obedience unto death.  If I am born of God, it is because Christ has already put away ALL my sin in His death, His wrath removed, and I am thereby JUSTIFIED and acquitted of ALL charges against me, Acts 13:39.  Yes, I acknowledge that ongoing, unchangeable sin nature within me, which the Spirit of God causes me to confess continually before God. However, in so doing, I have the assurance that He is faithful and just to continue to forgive and cleanse me of all my unrighteousness because of the death of His Son on my behalf, I John 1:9.  The renewing of the mind then is by the Spirit of God causing me to look away from sin and self to the ONLY righteousness of God, that was already imputed to me at the cross, and by which God continually looks upon me as sinless, Heb. 8:12, 10:17.  Romans 4:15- “for where no law is, there is no transgression.”  Christ satisfied the law, therefore, there is no more sin to condemn for those He redeemed by His shed blood, Romans 10:4.

                When John writes of his seed remaining in one who is born of God, that seed is the very Word of Christ, revealed to the soul through the Gospel- 1 Peter 1:23.  Also, 1John 1:10, “If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and HIS WORD is not in us.”   It is not referring to some seed of righteousness implanted in us, but the revealed Word of God, which remains in one born of God, and causes them to see themselves as JUSTIFIED before God by the imputed righteousness of God in Christ.  What hope can I have that it is so for me?  Having been born of God, I know that He gave me life because He has already declared me perfect through the death of His Son, Heb. 1:3.  In that, I rejoice, and look to the day when I shall indeed in my experience be completely rid of my sin, through the resurrection of this body, and my final glorification in HIM! I John 3:1.                                                          KEN  WIMER

THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD

he true righteousness of which the Comforter convinces men, and which plainly means the divinely-provided righteousness of God by which our persons are accepted, consists in the sufferings and death of Christ.  Thus, that great act of obedience constitutes the atonement or righteousness of Christians.  The great reason why the Lord Jesus assumed our humanity and offered it by an act of self oblation, was to bring in this everlasting righteousness; or, to put it in a personal form, more adopted to the phraseology of the last-mentioned saying, the righteousness of Christians is the Son of God dying on the cross and going to the Father.  CHRIST HIMSELF IS OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS, or propitiation, which avails with God for the complete acceptance of our persons. Thus the righteousness of God, viewed in this personal aspect coincides with the position that the dying or crucified Christ is the righteousness of His people, or made of God unto righteousness; and that not by a make-believe, but because what He did, His people are considered to have done in Him                                                                        G. SMEATON